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Swedish Wooden Toys September 18, 2015 through January 17, 2016 Swedish Wooden Toys September 18, 2015 – January 17, 2016 Swedish Wooden Toys is the first in-depth study of the history of wooden playthings in Sweden from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. Remarkable doll houses, puzzles and games, pull toys, trains, planes, automobiles, and more will be featured in this color- ful exhibition, on view at Bard Graduate Center from September 18, 2015 through January 17, 2016. Although Germany, Japan, and the United States have historically produced and exported the largest numbers of toys worldwide, Sweden has a long and enduring tradition of designing and making wooden toys—from the simplest handmade plaything to more sophisticated forms. This exhibition not only reviews the production of Sweden’s toy industries but also explores the practice of handi- craft (slöjd), the educational value of wooden playthings, and the vision of childhood that Swedish reformers have promoted worldwide. Swedish Wooden Toys is curated by Susan Weber, Bard Graduate Center founder and director, and Amy F. Ogata, professor of art history at the University of Southern California and former professor at Bard Graduate Center. Background Ulf Hanses for Playsam. Streamliner Rally, The modern concept of childhood emerged in Europe introduced 1984. Wood, metal. Private collection. during the seventeenth century, when the period from Photographer: Bruce White. infancy to puberty became recognized as a distinct stage in human development. As the status of childhood As this exhibition traces the history of Swedish toy gained in social importance, children acquired their production, it critically examines the cultural embrace own material goods. Special furniture, such as cribs and of the wooden toy as a symbol of timelessness and high feeding chairs, and amusements, including rattles and quality. Sweden’s forests provided an abundant natu- dolls, became increasingly common in elite and middle- ral resource for the toy industry and for amateur toy class European households. The notion of the innocent makers, but the veneration of the wooden toy was, and child who learned through play was fully established by has remained, international. In the 1950s, when plastic the middle of the eighteenth century, and toys began became an increasingly common material for toys, the to gain importance as a means of demonstrating family French critic Roland Barthes praised the warmth and status and as tools for teaching children and preparing reassuring qualities of wood for children’s playthings. them for adulthood. Swedish design achieved international prominence in the early twentieth century, and its products were In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Sweden, wooden exhibited and sold as examples of good design and toys were the ordinary amusements of the poor. Carving manufacture. Although wood may suggest endurance small animals from the plentiful resource of wood was and tradition, Swedish wooden toys also reflect a wider a traditional occupation for rural Swedes. By the mid- preoccupation with popular culture, such as children’s nineteenth century, as the cult of childhood innocence books and animated films. surged, the Swedish toy industry produced wooden animals, carts, dolls, sleds, and furniture for a rapidly Through the twentieth century, the Swedish toy industry growing domestic market. expanded into the worldwide market. Wartime scarcity BRIO. Mexi stacking toy, introduced 1954. and embargo stimulated the market for Swedish goods. Wood. BRIO Lekoseum. Exports, primarily to neighboring Nordic countries, Photographer: C83 Media, Carl-Johan Nilsson. increased and eventually spread to the United States and Great Britain. The products of the major Swedish toy manufacturers Gemla, Micki, and BRIO are a central focus of the exhibition, but many amateur-made objects reflect the particular inventiveness of the Swedish experience. The ordinary wooden toy achieved new recognition as an agent in the training and educating of children, as an emblem of Swedish handicraft, and finally as a symbol of Sweden itself. Swedish Wooden Toys will show that from the handmade objects of the rural farmstead to the mass-produced products of major firms, Swedish toys not only reflect but also inform the changing social and cultural values of their time. Themes The Materiality of Wood and the Making of Swedish Toys: Carpentry and woodworking were necessary occupations in Sweden’s historically agricultural society. Children learned the skills of carving, sawing, and joining both at home and through obligatory handicraft courses. Objects in this section include a full-scale workbench, tools, and carved parts for a large rocking horse, as well as jigsaw-cut toys, such as a jointed horse and rider and a large homemade model-bookcase of a suspension bridge. There are also a number of objects made by children themselves. Motorcycle and rider, 1940–50. Wood, metal. © Roma Capitale – Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali – Collezione di giocattoli antichi, CGA LS 9522. Photographer: Bruce White. Transportation: Trains, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, and boats are among the most familiar forms of children’s toys and a specialty among the Swedish toys produced in the twentieth century. The Swedish relationship with water encouraged many kinds of sailing toys, including a prize-winning 1923 sailboat built by a father and son, as well as other toy sailboats, rowboats, and canoes. War Toys and Weapons: One of the earliest wooden toys ever discovered in Sweden is a sword, indicating that objects of conflict are central to the history of playthings. This concept is represented in the exhibition by a home- made slingshot, wooden rifles, and a Gemla cork pistol. Other objects on view are a large Swedish battleship from about 1918, a homemade submarine from the mid-1930s, and a submarine game from the mid-1940s. Winter Toys: In a country where winter is the longest season of the year, toys for playing outdoors in the snow are a fundamental aspect of childhood. This part of the exhibition features a variety of sleds, skis, and skates, as well as toys to be played with on frozen lakes and in the snowy landscape. John Carlsson. Dollhouse and furnishings, Puzzles and Games: The puzzles and games in this exhibi- 1912. Belonged to Elsa Carlsson. Wood, glass, metal, various materials; wired for tion show how designers and manufacturers directed electricity. © Roma Capitale – both children and adults toward the acquisition of Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali – Collezione di giocattoli antichi, CGA LS 32. specific abilities in such activities as puzzles, games of Photographer: Bruce White. chance, croquet, table tennis, and bowling. A homemade set of Rävspel, an old Scandinavian game, and BRIO’s Labyrinth, introduced in the 1940s suggest how playtime The Horse: The horse was the backbone of the rural offered the opportunity to tune fine motor skills. Swedish economy until the early twentieth century, and its form became common as a child’s toy. Among the Educational Toys: The vision of a wholesome Swedish many horses in this exhibition are traditional painted childhood is strongly associated with wooden educational horses and a broad selection of rolling and rocking objects. A pounding bench and stacking clown toy taught horses produced by both amateurs and Gemla, the large motor skills and hand-eye coordination, while largest nineteenth-century manufacturer. The painted blocks and building sets taught patience and skill. Small- Swedish horse was not only a favorite plaything, but it scale kitchen and cleaning toys instilled the work of daily also became a recognized symbol of Sweden itself in the life in Swedish children, and the toy loom became one twentieth century. of the most familiar Swedish educational toys thanks to required schooling in slöjd, or handicraft. Dollhouses: The dollhouse is a traditional type of amuse- ment for both children and adults, and these diminutive Toy Retailers and Consumer Toys: As the market for com- dwellings describe the shift in housing and furnish- mercially made toys grew in the second half of the ing across three centuries. A particular highlight is nineteenth century, the major manufacturers developed the oldest known dollhouse from Scandinavia, a late mail-order catalogues and sold their goods in shops and seventeenth-century cabinet commissioned by Queen department stores. Mother Ulrika Eleonora for her daughter. In addition to the elegant models produced by major manufacturers, Popular Culture in Swedish Toys: Although the tradition of the inventive work of amateurs is also evident in several wooden toys endures, popular culture marks many of the homemade dollhouses. objects in the exhibition. In the twentieth century, BRIO licensed characters from Disney films, and homemade of maintaining craft manufacturing in an era of global toys include jigsaw-cut and jointed Popeye and Kewpie mass-production. The first substantial publication in figures. Images of black entertainers and a dancing English on the history and meaning of Swedish toys, it minstrel, in addition to an “Indian” play set, raise the includes twelve essays by experts in the field and is avail- specter of racism and cultural stereotyping in children’s able in the Gallery and online at store.bgc.bard.edu. playthings. Gallery Programs Lectures, gallery talks, and conversations are offered in conjunction with the exhibition. For more information, please call 212-501-3011 or e-mail [email protected]. edu. Exhibition Tours Group exhibition tours for adult and school groups are offered Tuesday through Friday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and Thursday until 7 p.m. Reservations are required for all groups. To schedule a tour, please call 212-501-3013 or e-mail [email protected]. Bard Graduate Center Gallery is located in New York City at 18 West 86th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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